Out of Africa

Now that he’s in office, what will Obama’s Africa Policy really be like? Here’s a prediction.

According to the United Nations, millennium goals for the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are far off track—and when it comes to Africa the need is great and the prospects for moving forward are dim. None of the goals, which include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development are likely to be met in Africa, a United Nations study concluded.

Should we become the United States of Africa?

And even if we should, are we ready?

Age 43 and with his own Facebook page, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi of Nigeria believes that the youth of the country will be the ones to bring change. Especially in regards to teh conditions in the Niger Delta, where oil has brought violence instead of development.

How do you see the situation in the Niger Delta?

The criminal activities that were taking place in the Niger Delta are no longer as rampant as they used to be. Kidnappings are no longer a daily occurrence. They occurred due to the lack of an enforcement of laws. The laws are there, but the government didn’t see the need to [enforce them] and people were doing anything they wanted to do with impunity. When some of us took over they said,  “Negotiate with them.” I said that I negotiate with those who have ideological intentions. I didn’t see anybody among those who claimed to be fighting for the Niger Delta with any ideology.

The Niger Delta area requires total re-branding because what is on the ground is not what is being portrayed. Things have started changing at a very high magnitude. All the young governors are pushing things in a different manner. Almost all of us governors in the Niger Delta have started making things change.

How have you been trying to improve conditions?

We believe that one way to transfer ourselves from our own injustice is to ensure that you look at the quality of education, infrastructure, the availability and quality of teachers, the training and re-training of teachers. Education is an essential element in the progress of our people, because, at the end of the day, there is a competition in the committee of states and if you are not properly educated you cannot compete. And you the governor will have visited injustice on your people if you don’t address that.

The law says that primary education is the responsibility of the local government council. But what we’ve done because of the incapacity to develop that area, we’ve taken it over from them. We are currently building 250 primary schools. Before the conclusion of the construction of those schools we intend to train and retrain teachers and hire more teachers.

To read the complete interview on allAfrica.com, click here.

Some of the coolest things, to me, about his plan for his state: 

• providing free primary school education
• that maintenance is more important than construction
• the hopes of building a new city hub in Rivers so that Port Harcourt isn’t the only one

Thing I learned:

• Rivers State has a free pre-natal program
• They have one of the only syringe factories in Nigeria
• There’s a monorail in the old city (I’m assuming Port Harcourt)
• There’s some foreign investment going on … from South Africans, and even Ukrainians. 

NOTE: I received this story in my e-mail and therefore, unfortunately, do not have a link for the original.

THE TRIAL OF A GOAT 
By Reuben Abati

The Vanguard newspaper considered the story so important it had to position it strategically on its front page on Friday, January 23: this is the story of the goat that was paraded, the other day, as a robbery suspect by the Kwara State Command of the Nigerian Police Force. Even the BBC published the story on its website. We are told that a group of vigilante security men had tried to arrest two men who were trying to steal a Mazda car somewhere in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara state, when suddenly the two suspected robbers took to their heels.
The vigilante men, who in many parts of the country now help to secure life and property, due to the inefficiency of the police, gave the robbers the chase. One of them escaped. The other one rested his back on the wall, and turned into a goat. The local vigilante refused to be outwitted. They promptly arrested the goat (in a bold display of citizen action) and took him(?) to a police station, where the goat was dutifully arrested and detained. The goat has since been paraded before the press, apparently to show how efficient the Kwara Police Command is, and in the words of the State Police PRO, Mr Tunde Mohammed, the goat, ram or sheep (there is an identity crisis here) will not be left off the hook until investigations have been concluded.

If anybody is wondering what is going on here, I urge that person to consider also a similar story that broke a week earlier in the Isokoko area of Agege, Lagos. This other story was also so important, it made the front page of the PM News. It is the story of an Okada, motorcycle passenger who after using the helmet that was provided by the motorcyclist suddenly turned into a tuber of yam. Persons who claimed to have witnessed the miraculous transformation raised an alarm and called in the police. The motorcyclist and the tuber of yam were arrested. Both okada rider and yam tuber are currently being detained at the Isokoko Police Station in Agege, Lagos. The reduction of the Nigerian Police Force to a level where its officials now arrest and detain goats and tubers of yam as criminal suspects is disturbing indeed. It is a strange development in Nigeria’s criminal justice administration system. We have before us a major issue of law and its interpretation. And it is something that should interest our legal experts.

Where is the goat that is now in the custody of the Kwara State Police Command being kept? Behind the counter? in the cell? or in the yard? Will it share the same cell with similar criminals? And how did the Investigating officer take the goat’s statement? In Nigerian law, every one on trial is entitled to fair hearing. Is the Kwara Police Command planning to grant the goat bail? What is the goat being charged for? Attempted theft? Disruption of public peace? Or what? Whatever offence this goat may have committed is bailable. If it is still being kept as at the time of this writing, I insist that the Kwara state Police Command is guilty of a violation of the goat’s rights as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The law is that anyone who is arrested should be charged to court within 48 hours, the offence that has been committed should be read to that person in a language that he or she understands, and the person should be allowed to have access to a lawyer of his or her own choice.

Where then, are our human rights and constitutional lawyers? Gani Fawehinmi, Festus Keyamo, Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, Bamidele Aturu, Jiti Ogunye, Mike Ozekhome, Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa… there is some work for you please in Ilorin. A citizen of the Federal Republic is being detained beyond 48 hours by the Kwara State Police Command. He is also being denied bail. His offence has not been communicated to him in a language that he understands. And yet, the Nigerian Police have been parading him on television and maligning his character Yes, he is a goat. But if the police consider him a legal entity worthy of arrest, as a criminal suspect, a hardened armed robber for that matter, then certainly, he deserves to be treated according to the law. The Yar’Adua administration says it is committed to the rule of law. The matter armed robbery suspect turned goat in Ilorin provides a test case for this.

And when you gentlemen of the law, great officers in the temple of justice are through with the Ilorin case, please do not forget to go to the Isokoko police station in Agege, Lagos where a tuber of yam, that was once allegedly a human being is also being detained as useful evidence in a similar case. Both cases should be pursued all the way to the court of law. We need to know, and their Lordships should provide the necessary education in this regard, whether a goat and a tuber of yam, although previously said to be human beings can be put in the dock in a court of law in Nigeria. And to ensure fair hearing, what language would a goat or a tuber of yam speak before the court? Would there be interpreters in court to translate the goat-speak during cross-examination? And will farmers be invited to differentiate between a normal tuber of yam and a human being that turned into a goat? I plead that this is a matter of urgent national importance. And a great test for jurisprudence.

It has been said to my hearing that the Criminal Code forbids sorcery, and witchcraft, and that such unscientific occurrences as a human being turning into a goat or a tuber of yam, and the police arresting a goat and parading it as a criminal suspect is unknown to Nigerian law. It was a goat that was taken to the Ilorin police station and a yam to the Isokoko police station in Lagos and the police men on duty believed those who brought the reports, so much, that they quickly took action against the goat and the yam. These are law enforcement officers at work. I don’t want to condemn any police man. I believe that the courts should be allowed to pronounce n this matter once and for all.

Two years ago, one woman was said to have turned from a bird into a human being somewhere in Lagos and she was lynched to death. Before then, one boy called Samuel was burnt alive on the streets of Lagos, after he had been accused of witchcraft. Soldiers and policemen watched the execution and joined the mob in the act. Television stations recorded it all and played the footage later in the day. In Akwa Ibom, most recently, many children were accused of witchcraft and they were tortured , killed, burnt alive and so on. The belief in the supernatural, indeed in metaphysical possibilities is so rife in our land.

Nigerians are animists at heart. They believe that every living being has a dual spirit. A goat can turn into a human being and vice versa, and a tuber of yam could be human. Local folktales are full of such references and in more contemporary times, the churches and local movie producers have turned the myth into reality. The only place where the metaphysical is treated with utter non-chalance is in the statutes. The law and the Nigerian people are at different ends in this regard. One of the issues that the court of law can address is whether or not the time has come to accommodate this social reality in our laws. We have to take serious precaution lest all criminals adopt the tactics of turning into cats, goats, cockroaches etc. And the police would do no other job than to go about arresting animals.

While all that is being considered, the courageous lawyers who choose to take on these human rights cases, (pro bono of course) should insist that the goat in particular should not be subjected to any form of torture. The Vanguard and the BBC have different photographs of the goat that was involved in the matter of failed theft. It is needless to reiterate that it is the right goat that should be charged to court. No man can be tried for an offence that has been committed by another. As it is with men, so it should be with goats. And where are the animal rights activists in Nigeria? By now, they should have been on the streets defending the rights of a member of their family who is obviously under stress in Ilorin. They must insist that the Kwara Police Command must respect all international conventions and treaties on the rights of detained persons to which Nigeria is signatory.

Now that this matter has become a matter of public interest, the Inspector General of Police must ensure that his men produce the detained goat upon request and that the yam that is being kept as evidence in Isokoko is carefully protected. On no account should it be said that the goat is a victim of accidental discharge or that it attempted to escape from custody and got shot in the process. The proper weight and size of the tuber of yam in Isokoko must also be properly documented. And may the Lord be with the Nigerian Police Command as it tries to reduce the number of criminals on Nigerian streets by putting an end to the nuisance of the goat in Ilorin police custody. Let someone shout alleluyah please.

If I were A Governor…

If I were a state Governor in Nigeria today, I would hurry up and quickly find a way to get close to any of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s daughters. There is such a big scramble for the President’s daughters today. It is not a good thing for an able-bodied, young man like me to be left out of the race. But yours sincerely can’t even make any attempt because he is not a Governor. Only Governors are acceptable as Presidential daughters’ suitors please. UMYA and Mama Turai are not even looking at people like us. Two daughters have already been taken by state Governors. Well, God dey.

If I were a Governor, walahi, I won’t waste time to get my own Presidential daughter too. Imagine the benefits: direct access to the President whenever and wherever, a full taste of Presidential anointing in my own bedroom whenever, well when able, and forever. It is also a powerful talisman against any threat of impeachment. Who will dare threaten to impeach the President’s own son-in-law? And of course, I will get a second term. Who will dare challenge the President’s son-in-law? And if any body tries it, I could always fall back on the good sense of the INEC Chairman and his men.

How about love? I am in love with the President’s daughters already without even meeting anyone of them. Love, that is the simplest part of it. And I would prove it. Look, to show that I love the President’s daughter, once she agrees to marry me, I would invite musicians from Congo, South Africa, China and the United States. I assure you Beyonce will be invited too. And Rihanna. And Shakira. And I will invite that boy, what is his name?, the one that sang: as you dey do me, do me, do me… give it to me someone. Nobody has declared a public holiday yet to mark his wedding to the President’s daughter. If I were a state Governor, I would add that extra dimension and declare a public holiday. Why hasn’t someone thought of that? Come to think of it, it is a good idea you know?

On Tuesday, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America.  It was a day when hope seeped back into the United States, a day when hoped swept through the rest of the world. 

While there is some argument over whether is speech (watch below) was lofty enough for the occasion, and whether or not it’ll be memorable, I don’t think anyone can argue that it set the tone for what his presidency will be like. I personally believe it was what was needed for the moment. As the first black president of the United States, there are so many expectations being laid on this man — not just by Americans, but by the world.

In an interview with The Gaurdian, former Nigerian ambassador to the U.S. and Israel, Prof. George Obiozor seemed to say it best:

“With this, America has proved again that it can be a nation of hope and promise; the U.S. has reconfirmed its heritage as a country of hope and promise.”

Africans especially seem to have high expectations. There is hope for a greater partnership between the U.S. and African countries — and not just in aid, but in TRUE development.  It means hope that African countries will also begin to put their best people forward and let democracy take its course and change our continent.  As written in an article on worldpress.org:

Barack Obama’s election and assumption of office has raised extraordinary expectations. No where are these expectations more stratospheric than in Africa, the continent of birth of the 44th President’s Father. Africans of all political persuasions, ethnicity and religion expect President Obama to keep faith with his deep African roots and make a difference in the continent.

Also sharing his thoughts with The Guardian, the former Minister of National Planning Sanusi Daggash said having Obama as the U.S. president holds a different kind of hope than any other American leaders.

“It represents a tremendous opportunity for Africans and Nigerians to seize the golden opportunity to reflect on issues on our Nigerianess, how we function as a people and international politics, our responsibilities to the world now that America has turned a new page with President Obama.”

But even with all these expecations, there are some realities Africans must face with this new administration. True, Obama knows Africa “from the ground up,” or at least more intimately than passed presidents. And yes, he understand poverty and instability from his childhood in Indonesia. Obama and his wife have also been actively involved in grassroot efforts throughout their lives, and grassroot efforts are essential to the developement of Africa. But when it comes down to it … we must remember that Obama belongs and serves the U.S. first, not Africa. 

The worldpress.org piece, written by Chinua Akukwe, that was one of the first realities he points out. Obama first needs to turn around the declining U.S. economy before he can truly reach out and help the rest of the world. There are also the two wars the U.S. is currently involved with in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Middle East definitely is a major concern on President Obama’s list of things to do. And as he’s stated in other interviews, building relationships with Latin America (a closer neighbor than Africa) is also a high priority.  He also needs to work on weaning the U.S. off its dependency on oil.  And let’s not even begin to talk about the health sector of the United States.  … President Obama has a lot on his plate. 

But even though Africans shouldn’t put TOO much hope in Obama and expect his first term to bring rapid change and perks for them, we need not fear that he will ignore our beloved continent. We are a growing source of oil, scarce natural minerals, trade and potential support in international institutions — America needs us, just as much as we might need them. And during his campaign, he did list three goals for Africa:

(1) Accelerate the integration of Africa into the global economy

(2) Enhance peace and security

(3) Strengthen institutions and civil society organizations 

All of this is achievable, but we must remember that Obama’s first and foremost priority is the United States. Meaning that it is Africa that has to step-up to make whatever help Obama can bring to our continent as president is not wasted.  Until we step up on our own, we will simply be an object of America’s foreign policy rather than a partner in it.  

Obama will not be the one to change Africa. The only thing Obama truly offers Africa is inspiration. 

His campaign is probably the best documented example of how to force your way over the barriers of discrimination and into the seat of power.  Its strategy was publicly and exhaustively debated.  Even its fundraising machine, the engine of the juggernaut, is no secret.  The pieces and processes are there if reformers wish to emulate Barack Obama’s attempt at a peaceful overturning of the status quo.  And though they may have the tacit support of the President, the success of such efforts is ultimately in the hands of people in Africa.  Barack Obama is a symbol of hope, but he cannot change the world alone.  – Michael Madill,  adjunct professor of government, Oakton Community College, Des Plaines, Illinois.

Barack Obama’s Inauguration Speech: 

Note: I began writing this entry in August, and never finished it. I am posting it now and as I find articles that may speak to the issue, I’ll make updates. 

Yesterday, my friend and I had just picked up my dad from the airport, when the two men got into a conversation about how bad things are in Nigeria. Especially in the Port Harcourt/Niger Delta region. For those of you who don’t know — there’s been a lot of “terrorist” action (bombings, riots, kidnappings, etc) due to a lot of conflict over oil revenue.

So my dad and friend were talking about how the Port Harcourt airport should be the best in Nigeria, how the roads should be the best, the schools, the hospitals — everything should be the best. Better than Abuja, the capital. And then my dad said something that stuck with me — “That’s what opened those boys’ [the rebels] eyes. They saw where all their oil money was going to and they protested.”

I was reminded of this conversation as I read this article in The Punch. It discusses the multiple ways Nigeria is denegrating.

In any case, our problems are man-made. And so, our salvation is in our hands.

Aid.

It’s the number one way the world’s leading countries seek to help Africa.

Get rid of poverty? Send aid to Africa. Millions dying of AIDS? Send aid to Africa. Bad governments? … send aid to Africa?

Kenyan Njoroge Wachai says trade, not aid, is what Africa needs.

For one thing, most of the aid promised to Africa in the last G8 Summit (in 2005) hasn’t been fulfilled and is unlikely to be fulfilled by the 2010 deadline. Pledge after pledge comes in, but most of them are not being fulfilled. So Wachai has one question: “ Why do African countries keep pushing for aid that rich countries are reluctant and unwilling to give? Isn’t there an alternative?”

He makes some really good points.

• Foreign Aid isn’t free: regardless of what Africans think, another country offering you aid isn’t like a scholarship. You’re going to have to pay it back some way, some how.

rich countries are lethargic about passing their money to Africa, because it doesn’t make economic sense to do so. … African leaders, out of their foolishness, believe wrongly that rich countries are philanthropic entities flush with cash to dole out to poor countries. That’s why they, or their representatives, are always in Western capitals with begging bowls.

•  Even if it were free … foreign aid will not move Africa out of poverty: the more we rely on the help of others, the more dependent we become and get further from our hopes to be independent. The countries that are giving the aid are still thinking of themselves first and foremost. Africa should do the same.

by Leila Noelliste

From the outside, parking garage attendant Kobina Azhir looks like an American-born Black man. But Azhir, a Ghanaian seaman who came to the city 22 years ago, is one of 23,000 African immigrants living in metropolitan Chicago.

On May 31, the United African Organization, a partnership of 20 African immigrant communities, held a summit at the DuSable Museum of African American History, to shed light on immigrants like Azhir. Alie Kabba, executive director of UAO, said that “public eduction” is necessary since African immigrants are often overlooked, or misunderstood.

“We realized a few years ago that the challenge for (African immigrants) is to end our invisibility and help to educate people about contemporary African issues in order to better understand the experience of African immigrants and refugees in Illinois,” said Kabba, who came to Chicago from Sierra Leone in 1991.

The second Chicago Summit on African Immigrants and Refugees attracted more than 200 African, Arab and Latino immigrants, as well as African American supporters. Issues that Africans face within their own countries, as well as in Illinois, were discussed in plenary sessions. Though the number of participants is higher than last year’s 160, the modest turn out is a reflection of Africans’ struggle to catch broad attention and support.

“Within the larger immigrant community, we tend to be overshadowed by the Latino community because they have the numbers. So when people think about immigrants, they think about Latinos, and not Africans,” Kabba said. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, there are approximately 582,000 Mexican immigrants living in metropolitan Chicago, compared to just 23,000 African immigrants.

Nigerians make up the majority of that count. European and Asian immigrants account for 366,000 and 321,000 respectively. Like most immigrants, Africans come to America to flee political instability, pursue education, or establish a better life.

They are the most educated immigrant group in metropolitan Chicago and nationally, Kabba said. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, 95.4 percent of African immigrants who had entered metropolitan Chicago in the past 10 years had a high school degree or more, compared to 39.1 percent of Latin American immigrants, 73.8 percent of European immigrants and 85.3 percent of Asian immigrants.

But when it comes to accessing language, housing, employment and medical services African immigrants still suffer “institutional neglect,” Kabba said. He added that this is particularly damaging since African immigrants face the dual challenge of being Black and foreign. “Resources are directed to the community with the largest numbers, which is Latin Americans… The francophone (those from French-speaking African countries) have a language barrier.

“When I hear about bilingual resources, I think, ‘The definition of bilingual has got to go beyond Spanish. It’s got to include those in other communities’,” Kabba said. Carol Adams, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, spoke at the summit and said that the state would take an “extra step to be inclusive” of African immigrants.

“When we talk about doing things for African American women, we are also including women who come from Africa,” Adams said. And the relationship between Africans and African Americans is critical, though plagued by miscommunication. The selection of DuSable for the summit was to represent the link between African Americans and African immigrants, who Kabba described as the “new African Americans.”

“Culture is a dynamic process,” said Kabba, and it’s a fact he has himself experienced. He had plans to move back to Sierra Leone after getting a degree in public policy from the University of Illinois, but a lengthy civil war in his homeland kept him here, where he is raising his 7-, 9-, and 12-yearold children.

“Being an African here is such a temporary identity. It’s a bridge to connect us to a more permanent space, and that permanent space is, naturally, within the African American community,” Kabba said. “When my kids grow up, they’re not going to think Sierra Leone. They’re going to think South Side, West Side, Chicago.”

(Source: The Chicago Defender)

I had meant to do this a while ago, but kept on putting it off. But as our class is coming to an end, I wanted to take the time to mention the blogs of some of my classmates who have featured Africa in one form or the other in their blogs.

• James Edwards – The Violence Project: With an entire blog about violence in Chicago, it’s kind of hard to feature news pertaining to Africa. But James did it in this post about Francis Oduro, a Ghanaian international student who was shot to death. Along with the Violence Project, my prayers go out to the Oduro family.
• Holly Fox – Familienpolitik: A new family law in Mali that would give illegitimate children inheritance rights is the subject of this post. Islamic groups are against this change and Holly provides an interesting comparison to the meaning of marriage and a marriage certificate in Mali versus the United States.
• Christa Hillstrom – Human Goods: In an earlier post I had linked to Christa’s blog about slavery in Mauritania. A more recent post looks at a former slave in Niger who is suing the government for not enforcing anti-slavery laws. In a country were human rights groups estimate about 43,000 people are still living in slavery, this is just the kind of accountability African countries need to be held to.
• Erin Halasz – Wikileads: Erin’s blog follows the online conversation about Wikileaks and the myriad ways in which its uncensorable, untraceable documents appear in public discourse. If you don’t know what Wikileaks is, basically it’s a site that leaks a whole lot of info, but is primarily user-generated like Wikipedia and stuff (Erin, or anyone else who knows, correct me if I’m wrong!). Some of the confidential documents received anonymously includes corruption in Kenya and other “shoddy standards of human rights” in sub-Saharan Africa. One of Erin’s particular posts highlights a recent posting on Wikileads of an invoice for Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defense, charging the country for a shipment of Chinese rockets, bombs and rounds of mortar.

I hope you take the time to check out their blogs, and while these are the only posts about Africa, each is very interesting and sophisticated. To see more blogs from my class, check out our class Web site.

Since independence, and actually even before, African countries have suffered in the department of good leadership. For the first two decades, and sometimes even more, “big men” have controlled the continent, caring more about filling their pockets than serving their citizens.In this opinion piece, Thandika Mkandawire looks at the theft of votes and the unethical ways these “big men” leaders take away real democracy from their countries’ people.

Democracy means rule of the demos, although it does not say exactly who the “demos” is. Many African leaders have exploited this lacuna, taking the prerogative to define the demos as that which ensures their re-election. This approach to choosing voters entails the introduction of criteria to exclude certain individuals or groups.

Giving examples from Zambia, Malawi, and Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo), it’s a well-written, and deep analysis of what’s wrong with democracy in Africa. In the end, her conclusion:

The problem in Africa is perhaps not so much how we choose our leaders, but what importance our leaders attach to the people’s choices.

 In Turkish Weekly, of all places, there is another opinion piece about “The Myth of the ‘Failed State’ in Africa.” 

Regional instability, armed conflict, ethnic/tribal/religious clashes, indebtedness, hunger, poverty, (reemerging) diseases, environmental degradation, underdevelopment… These are just a few references produced to ‘comprehend’ the current state of affairs in sub-Saharan Africa. They have been discursively presented and thus perceived as ‘natural’ and ‘internal’ problems or even ‘inherent’ characteristics of the continent.

The author see this definition of developing countries as simply a way, or an excuse, for non-developing countries to come in and intervene. “State failure” does not take into account historical and social conditions in these countries that “fail.” The writer really pushes the need to analyze the individual cases on the continent, instead of “mythically” representing them all as failed states.

Revealing this very mythical representation of failed states is a vital job in order to provide more substantial and enduring solutions for the ‘failures’ of those states.

The piece is a little “academic,” but is also a good analysis of the political situations in Africa and how we can look at them.